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Milk and Cookies!

I don’t know if nostalgic, delicious comfort foods get more classic than milk and cookies. But it’s no secret that the Feel Good Foodies are no fan of the typical milk consumed in these parts. Cow’s dairy? No thanks. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy a delicious cold glass of something smoothly creamy and white and delicious: almond milk! …And “milk” made from any raw nut or seed, for that matter.

Making nut and seed milks is wonderfully simple. Allow me to show you just HOW simple it is in this video:

Almond Milk

…or other flavours of your own choosing, such as fresh strawberries, or raw cacao powder, etc.

Soak the almonds for 6 hours or longer. I tend to place them in water before bed and let them soak over night. Then in the morning they’re ready to be “milked”!

Strain the soaking water and rinse the almonds clean.

Put the almonds in a blender with 4 cups of water. Blend until smooth.

You can call this done and chew your almond milk a little bit! The almond bits will mostly sink to the bottom. Or, grab a nut milk bag and carry on…

Pour the blended almond beverage into a nut milk bag over a large mixing bowl. Nut milk bags are sacks made of a fine nylon mesh that help you to strain out even the smallest almond crumbs, leaving you with a silky smooth beverage. They can be purchased in many health shops or at a lot of health product trade shows. If you don’t have one, you can use cheesecloth. As the holes in cheesecloth are much bigger, you may need to cut 2 or more pieces and layer them up. Carefully use the cheesecloth as a sieve to pour the almond milk through.

Gently squeeze the lump of almond meal in your bag or cheesecloth to squeeze out as much liquid as possible into the bowl. What you will end up with is a bowl of deliciously smooth almond milk, and a bag full of almond meal. This almond meal can be used for baking (recipe below!) or make it into fermented nut cheese.

You can once again call this done! Or you can be a fancy pants and keep going…

If you’re feeling fancy, pour your strained almond milk back into the blender. Add your desired flavours (vanilla and sea salt, cacao, or fresh strawberries, etc.). If using Irish moss, add this now too. This is optional but will help to thicken and emulsify your beverage, making it extra smooth and creamy. As this is not something most people have in their pantries, don’t sweat it if you don’t have any!

Blend until smooth once again and store your almond milk in a mason jar in the fridge. It will keep for about 4-5 days.

Serve in wide-mouthed glasses and dunk warm cookies into it! ENJOY!

As for the cookies, we’ve got you covered for those cravings for a classic chocolate chip cookie, but one that is not only gluten-free, but all out grain-free, and contains no refined sugar.

As is, the recipe is not vegan, but could easily be made vegan: simply substitute the honey with maple syrup, date sugar, date paste, or coconut crystals; substitute the egg with a flax or chia egg.

In a food processor, mix the coconut oil, honey, and egg until smooth (about 10 seconds). Do not melt the coconut oil for this, but if your coconut oil is really hard, you may want to soften it a bit (place jar in a dish of warm water for a few minutes).

Add the dry/powdered ingredients and process until an even dough is formed.

Chop the baker’s chocolate into pieces.

Stir carob chips and chopped baker’s chocolate into the batter by hand.

Grease a cookie sheet with coconut oil and spoon blobs of cookie dough onto the tray.

Wet your hands lightly and shape the cookies as desired – if the dough is sticky, keep wetting your hands after every few cookies, and they will not stick to you and can be shaped easily. The dough will not spread out very much in the baking process, so create about the size and shape you want them to be in the end. They can easily be turned into faces with ears and mouths formed with your hands, and extra carob chips for eyes. Fun!

Bake at 350 for about 10 – 12 minutes.

Eat them warm, dunked in freshly made almond milk!

And there you have it, my gluten-intolerant, lactose-intolerant, SCD, paleo, and/or vegan friends: you can have your cookies and dunk them too! ‘Cause C’s still for cookie if that’s good enough for you. 😉